Elisabeth "Eli" Ibarra Rabancho (born 29 June 1981) is a Spanish retired

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

or defender. She played club football for Eibartarrak FT from 1995 to 2002 and for

Primera División Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

club

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

from 2002 to 2017. She made 44 appearances for the Spain national team, scoring two goals. Ibarra held the record for most appearances for the women's first-team of

(413) until overtaken by former teammate Erika Vázquez in 2022. Her 111 goals across all competitions made her their third-highest goalscorer of all time. She is also the only player to have taken part in all five league championships that the club has won.

Club career

Ibarra started playing football at the age of 13. She played for Eibartarrak FT (now SD Eibar) for seven seasons, from 1995 to 2002, before joining the newly-founded women's team of

in the summer of 2002, ahead of the

2002–03 Superliga Femenina The 2002–03 Superliga season was the 15th edition since the competition's establishment and the second one since its unification. It was contested by twelve teams, and it ran from 6 October 2002 to 27 April 2003. Debuting team Athletic Bilbao w ...

season. When she first arrived at the club, she chose the number 17 shirt, in homage to former Athletic footballer

Joseba Etxeberria Joseba Andoni Etxeberria Lizardi (born 5 September 1977) is a Spanish retired footballer who played mostly as a winger, currently manager of CD Mirandés. After starting his professional career at the age of 17 with Real Sociedad, he quickly s ...

. She made her debut in a 7–1 win over Torrejón at the

Lezama Facilities The Lezama Facilities ( eu, Lezamako Kirol-instalakuntzak, es, Instalaciones de Lezama), is the training ground and academy of the Primera Division club Athletic Bilbao. Located in the Lezama village around 10 km east of Bilbao, it was opened i ...

, in what was the first ever match played by Athletic's women's team. Ibarra scored in Athletic's first two appearances in the UEFA Women's Cup. In December 2012, she played her 300th match for Athletic. In 2016, she won her fifth league title with Athletic and agreed to remain with the club for another year. In May 2017, at the age of 35, she announced her retirement from football. She made a total of 413 appearances for Athletic Bilbao – 367 in the league, 32 in the

Copa de la Reina Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Computer Operator Programming Assistant. trade of ITI * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Asso ...

, and 14 in the Champions League. She is the club's third highest goalscorer of all-time, behind Erika Vázquez and Nekane Díez, with 111 goals; of those, 104 came in the league, five in the Copa de la Reina, and two in the Champions League.

International career

Ibarra was a member of the Spain national team, where she was deployed by

Ignacio Quereda Ignacio Quereda Laviña (born 24 July 1950) is a Spanish football coach who managed the Spain women's national football team between 1988 and 2015. Playing career Born in Madrid, Quereda was raised in Badajoz where his family moved when he was ...

as a

left wing-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. She was part of Spain's squads for UEFA Women's Euro 2013 in Sweden and the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the ...

in Canada.

Career statistics

Honours

Athletic Bilbao *

: 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2006–07, 2015–16

References

External links

* *
Profile
at

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ibarra, Elisabeth 1981 births Living people People from Azkoitia Spanish women's footballers Footballers from Gipuzkoa Women's association football midfielders Spain women's international footballers 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players Liga F players SD Eibar Femenino players Athletic Club (women) players